As we shall see in a moment, our Davies’ forebears introduced guile and cunning into our gene pool as they sought to overcome the challenging reality of finding a life partner and soul mate when the nearest settlement is a day’s walk away and you are surrounded by sheep. The resulting procreation lead to this fine body of humanity:
You can click on any person below to open their full tree within Ancestry.co.uk. Contact me and I will send you an invite for free guest access to the entire ‘ifiwasatree’ tree. From then on any person on this website with a link will open for you in Ancestry and you will be able to explore the entire family tree of 1700+ and growing direct and indirect family members identified so far (plus any of the 700+ attached photos and scanned records). It’s not a perfect science, so please ping me with anything that looks incorrect.
In 1855 my great great grandparents, Edward Davies (1821-1890) and wife Martha (née Jones 1829-1885), moved into The Folly Farm near Lydbury North, Shropshire. Here they brought into the world 8 of their 9 children. In 1890 Edward died, and his son, 29 year old Thomas Powell Davies (1862-1952), took over the reins.
At this point the new young farmer set about finding a wife…
As luck would have it, his uncle David Hughes (1826-1897) lived in the neighbouring Hill End Farm on the edge of Plowden village, a mere 2 miles meander along the babbling River Onny valley beneath Plowden Hall.
1850s map of the land between The Folly and Hill End Farm
Gate below The Folly
Gate below Hill End Farm
We can only speculate on the courtship between ‘TP’ and the fair Kate, eldest daughter of the strait-laced looking Uncle David Hughes. I like to think they caught each other’s eye, as they stole a sideways glance whilst kneeling at church prayers once a week. Maybe at a festive family get together they hatched a plan to ‘bump’ into each other at the Mill House on the Onny. Then disaster struck; the Hughes family moved lock stock and barrel to Lower Wood Farm near Albrighton. However, this census from 1891 suggests they had a cunning plan…
Once their romantic plan had succeeded they never looked back; from housekeeper in 1891, by the 1901 census they had firmly laid the genetic foundations for our future selves – hoorah!
And the rest is truly history. Many of you have fond memories of The Folly which perhaps we can capture in a research post at some point. Today the original barns to the right of the farmhouse are sadly gone. When my parents knocked on the front door in 2020 they discovered that the current occupants are a welcoming group of three or four Mennonites families and their eleven children. They import oak from America with which to make and sell shaker-style kitchens, as well as running a bakery in Craven Arms. They were rather pleased to hear that TP Davies, in his spare time, was a lay preacher who would travel the Clun district on Sundays to preach at Wesleyan Methodist chapels.
The Folly Farm taken with TP’s box camera early 1900’s
And the rest is truly history. Many of you have fond memories of The Folly which perhaps we can capture in a research post at some point. Today the original barns to the right of the farmhouse are sadly gone. When my parents knocked on the front door in 2020 they discovered that the current occupants are a welcoming group of three or four Mennonites families and their eleven children. They import oak from America with which to make and sell shaker-style kitchens, as well as running a bakery in Craven Arms. They were rather pleased to hear that TP Davies, in his spare time, was a lay preacher who would travel the Clun district on Sundays to preach at Wesleyan Methodist chapels.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Davies Research Posts
Folly Farm Memories
All the Davies residents of The Folly Farm [...]